Claire Dunigan Professor Lori Smith Communications 220 PR Theory Paper 11 April 2017 Framing: Was it true? It is hard to trust news stories nowadays because sometimes the information presented is misleading. “The basis of framing theory is that the media focuses attention on certain events and then places them within a field of meaning” (“Mass Communication Theory.”) It is important to know where framing came from, the influence it has on social media (as well as its pros and cons), and some real life examples of the theory. Common terms used to describe today’s news media stories are “fake news” and “alternative facts.” A man by the name of Erving Goffman was the first to focus in on framing in communication. He defined framing as “a schemata …show more content…
Framing can be used in several different ways, but in news media and public relations “frame holder’s strategically attempt to influence and shape how audiences perceive and comprehend situations, events, and products through persuasion, inclusion, or exclusion of facts” (“Influence of Framing Theory…”) The news that is posted may seriously impact someone’s life or not impact it at all. Framing is also used a lot in republican and democratic parties, using their point of view to defend their certain parties’ beliefs. Media constantly use framing in political issues, as it is easy to include extra information or exclude current true information. Framing operates through three processes: cognitive, rhetorical, and ideological. Cognitive is just including facts that will benefit the cores theme, rhetorical is how the information should be understood, and ideological is how the society itself works. These three points are important in framing, as it shows news media what and how they want to frame their story. It is important to realize the positive and negative effects framing has on a society. When an organization wants to have positive framing it is important that “the organizations public must first be accepted and embraced by the internal publics before it can be effective with the external publics” (“Framing in public relations.”) Knowing the audience is key if an organization wants to present a positive frame to externals. Negative effects can also take place in framing, an example being trustworthiness. “Humans have issues of credibility and trustworthiness when exposed to messages strategically framed by political communicators...” (“Framing in public relations.”) Most people don’t realize that framing happens right in front of them, and it is a subject that should be brought to everyone’s